“Free from what?” I would’ve thrown my hands up in the air if they weren’t bound so tight they were cutting off my circulation.
“No more questions about what could have been ruining our lives together. No more listening to Dad talk about what will happen when my sister becomes the precious Golden Rose and Nerissette is free and happy again. No more listening to why we have to save the world for Allie.”
“So let me get this straight.” I shifted and brought my hands up to cover my neckline, making sure that the chain that held the tear was hidden under my shirt. “You want to doom an entire world to misery because you think our dad likes me more than you?”
“I want him to be free. I want all of us to be free. For us to have a chance at lives that aren’t ruled by an idiot girl.”
“No, this has nothing to do with our world or with our people. This is about you. You want our father all to yourself. You’re jealous. Jealous of a girl who didn’t even know who he was until a few hours ago.” I paused. “That’s pathetic. You know that, right? I mean, seriously. You’re jealous over the fact that you had a dad and I didn’t? That’s almost too backward for words.”
“Then quit talking,” a cold voice said. The Fate Maker flickered into existence in the middle of the clearing. “Otherwise I might be forced to gag you.”
He turned to Eamon and shook his head. “Yap, yap, yap.” He moved his hand like he was mimicking someone talking. “Just like her mother. She yaps away like some sort of annoying crow. Like that creature of Sullivan’s—the roc he’s got guarding his home in the north. Screech, shriek, yap, yap, yap. What I wouldn’t do for a reliable spell to make them both mute.”
“Tell me about it,” Eamon huffed. “You aren’t the one who’s spent three months having to listen to her and her stupid friends. Justice, free will, let’s all live in peace and harmony. It’s enough to make any true warrior sick.”
“I’m sure it was such a trial for a brave, valiant warrior like you,” the Fate Maker said.
“It was,” Eamon said, not catching the wizard’s sarcasm. “Thank the Pleiades that she was so ridiculously easy to trap, so stupidly trusting. She actually let me take her from a house with a dozen guards, and she didn’t even try to raise an alarm.”
“Good. And you’ve given her your speech? Revealed the truth about her father? Told her how much you hated her? Explained why you’re betraying her?”
“She knows everything,” Eamon said.
“Good. There’s nothing worse than hearing someone crying why over and over again as the end comes. It’s very annoying.”
“My army is going to stop you,” I said, trying to keep my voice from wavering. “No matter what you do to me, they won’t stop until you’re dead. They’ll find you and—if you’re lucky—they’ll banish you to the Bleak right beside me. It’ll be me and you, trapped in the void between worlds for all time. ”
“The Bleak?” The Fate Maker raised an eyebrow at me. “What makes you think that I’m going to sentence you to life in the Bleak?”
“I—” I looked first at him and then at Eamon.
“You may not believe this, my dear Allie.” The Fate Maker came closer and crouched in front of me. “But I don’t want you to suffer. I just want my throne back.”
“It’s not your throne,” I said. “It’s my mother’s. Or it was before you put her in a coma.”
“A technicality.” He shrugged and rested his elbows on his knees. “You want to know the truth?”
“No,” I spat.
“No?”
“You’re incapable of telling the truth. You twist things around to hurt people, and I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”
The Fate Maker leaned close so that his mouth was near my ear. “I loved your mother,” he said quietly. “More than that idiot John of Leavenwald ever would have. All I wanted was to rule for her so that she could be happy. That’s all I ever wanted for either of you.”
“You wanted power.”
“It would have been a nice side benefit, but no, I really just wanted for both of you to be happy. In fact, I’ll prove it to you.”
“How?”
“I’ll give you everything you’ve ever wanted. That secret desire you never wanted to admit.” He brushed his hand against my forehead.
My eyes closed against my will, and I saw what he was offering me: a life in the world we’d left behind. Mom in the kitchen and a guy who looked like John sitting in front of the television. There were framed photos of me standing between them at swim meets and a picture of me in a formal dress next to Winston. My mother on the couch, snuggling into John’s side, smiling. He turned to me and opened his arms, inviting me to come join them.
I jerked my head away from the Fate Maker’s hands and opened my eyes, staring straight into his eyes. “No deal.”
“Really? I’m offering you the life you’ve always dreamed of and you’re just going to say no deal? Don’t you want to think about it?”
“That’s not my life, and those people weren’t my parents.”
“They could be.” He smiled at me but the warmth didn’t reach his eyes. “You’d never know the difference. All of this would be nothing more than some weird dream. You’d forget all about us by lunchtime.”
“What about my friends?”
“What about them? Fragments you’ll forget before you’re even completely awake. Side characters in a very realistic dream.”
“And Eamon?”
“Eamon?” The Fate Maker turned to look across the clearing at my jerky half brother, who was standing in a tight group with his men, all of them talking quietly and moving their hands in quick, angry gestures. “What about him?”
“What happens to Eamon?”
“The same thing that’s going to happen anyway.” The Fate Maker stood and glanced down at me, brushing his hands against the black velvet of his robe. “I have no place in my ranks for a man I can’t trust—especially one with his own group of soldiers.”
He raised his hand and a ball of energy crackled to life in his hand, swelling to the size of a bowling ball in less than a second.
“No!” I tried to thrust myself forward, going for the Fate Maker’s knees. But because of how I was trussed up I couldn’t get the leverage and only managed to slam into his ankles, knocking him off-balance. Eamon was a jerk, a traitor, but I couldn’t just sit and watch as the Fate Maker killed him. Even if he was a crap sibling.
Eamon spun around at the sound of my voice, and the swirling mass of dark magic hit him in the center of his chest. Our eyes met for a brief second before the space around him filled with light and he crumpled, lifeless, to the ground.
Getting my feet underneath me, I pushed myself up, hitting the Fate Maker with my shoulders. He stumbled and I dug my elbows into his stomach, tackling him to the ground.
“No.” I got up on my knees, pinning him underneath me, and started pummeling him with my bound fists. “Bring him back. I command you to bring him back. You give me my brother back.”
“No.” The Fate Maker smiled at me, his mouth bloody from where he’d bitten his own lip during our fall. “And besides, why would you want him back? He was a terrible sibling. He betrayed you.”
“Bring him back,” I shrieked as two of the woodsmen reached us and grabbed my arms, pulling me off him.
He shifted his weight so he could stand as I fought against the two men holding me. “I did you a favor. One last favor before you die.”
“Then do me a real favor and bring him back.”